Yes, once upon a time, America did enjoy tech transfer from China. Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, a celebrated American poet, had a few famous lines about this uniquely Chinese technology:

"The willow pattern that we knew

In childhood, ...

Filled us with wonder and delight,

Or haunted us in dreams at night."

"The willow pattern" etched in Longfellow's fond memory speaks volumes about a down-to-earth wonder, namely, Chinese porcelain (or china). To a fertile mind like Longfellow's, Chinese porcelain was a dream come true, thanks to a technology invented and perfected in the Middle Kingdom. Rarely in the world ancient or modern can a technology be this poetically beautiful. No wonder George Washington, himself a highly cultured man, had a 302-piece dinner and tea set as his china treasure in Mount Vernon. There's something about china/China.

Today, no one can or should fault America for jealously guarding its technology against China. Ironically, in the early 19th century, it was the opposite. Back then, China was the one jealously guarding its technology against America. However, tech transfer happened in both cases anyway, now as before. Learning by whatever means from China, America ended up with a porcelain industry of its own. To be fair, though, American porcelain is no Chinese porcelain, just as Chinese microchip is no American microchip. A copycat can only do so much. Of course, it always takes more than a copycat to make illicit tech transfer possible.

--- by Lingyang Jiang

George Washington's "Cantonware"